Electric shower or not?

[JuneJan]

We are mid renovation and are upgrading our heating system to a pressurised one. DH wants to put an electric shower in one of the bathrooms because it means we don't need to heat water in the summer but the builder/plumber/bathroom sales guy all say we don't need it and that water will heat up quickly. DH likes a high pressured shower and has made it known that he does so they all say an electric shower is the worst shower you'll ever have. Any advice? Anyone regret not putting an electric shower in? We always had electric showers so now I think we have the fear of not having one🙈

They're pretty feeble but if you have two bathrooms then I'd install one.
I have an electric shower and it's a lifesaver when the boiler plays up. It's horribly expensive to run though.

I used to like electric showers but they're electric guzzlers (like gas guzzlers). This electric tariff increase is only felt dearly because of our electric shower.

@JuneJan Electric showers are awful, as they have to restrict the water flow long enough for it to be heated up inside the tank, so they have terribly low shower pressure. Also, I always feel uneasy showering right next to a high current mains voltage device which has water running all over it! You don't mention what kind of boiler you have- is it a combi gas boiler? If so, you're much better off running a hot pipe from the boiler to the shower area, and using a mixer shower valve to combine the output from the high pressure hot & cold pipes. You will get much better shower pressure with this arrangement, and your boiler will only heat the water while you're having your shower, then switch itself off. Another advantage is you don't need a dedicated ceiling switch for the shower, and a shower valve has a much longer life than an electric shower. If the valve goes faulty, you can open it up & replace just the ceramic cartridge. If your shower is over a bath, you can get a combination bath filler / shower valve, which would be cheaper than having a separate bath tap & an electric shower.

I will be installing an electric shower instantly in our new house.

I am so fucking sick of the gas cutting out when I'm in the shower or if someone runs a tap and suddenly being plunged into arctic rain.

Never once had an issue with electric (most showers we have owned) but ALWAYS had issues with the bloody awful gas one.

The one we are buying has an 8 year warrenty.

@housethatbuiltme You can get a thermostatic valve which will counteract any changes in the pressure balance between the hot & cold feeds instantly.

@Tromso Another issue is I've never been happy showering next to a high voltage & current electric device covered in a thin plastic box, with water flowing all over the casing and onto me! What happens if the shower casing leaks, and the RCD fails? There would be fireworks! They terrify me, to be honest! At least a shower mixer valve isn't connected to the electric supply (except for the earth bonding connection)! Is anyone else worried about climbing into the shower with a live electrical appliance? 😱

I used the electric shower at my dad's when staying there for a fortnight and honestly, I could have peed faster and with more force than the shower.

At home mine runs off the combi boiler with a Mira mixer and it's so much better.

No, nearly every house I ever lived in had electric showers as did most my friends... its literally never been an issue, its completely safe.

You are more likely to die putting your socks on and equally likely to die from a gas leak explosion.

How many times have you heard of someone blown up by the shower?

I can only give you anecdote - I think it depends on the electric shower and your water pressure - I had a series of flats with high wattage Mira showers (Sport model - not sure if it's still available) which were great. I also liked the redundancy in case the boiler broke. I think it was cheaper too.

Currently have an allegedly mains pressure hot water cylinder and shower in a flat. The pressure is terrible. So I'd be very sure your water pressure is adequate. Apparently you can't put a pump in alongside a pressurised cylinder.

@housethatbuiltme You're right, I've never heard of anyone being electrocuted by an electric shower. But it still scares me! Have you seen the thickness of the 10mm2 cables used, and they carry about 40 amps! That would give you quite a jolt. Luckily, the installation is usually protected by an RCD, so if any water did leak in, it would trip the switch.

We have one of these Mira Azora Dual Frosted Green 9.8kW Thermostatic Dual Outlet Electric Shower - Screwfix in a shower room off the utility downstairs. It's used a few times a week, e.g. after DS plays rugby or when we come back sandy from a beach trip. We wanted one electric shower in case the gas boiler broke down, or to have the option of using electricity if there's an issue with gas supply at some point in future.

I actually find it gives a reasonable shower, but I like quite a cool shower and not too high a pressure. If you turn the temperature up then the flow rate drops off. This is standard for electric showers as the fine control of the temperature is achieved by varying the flow rate instead of increasing/decreasing the power to the heating element.

If you have a system boiler (hot water tank) by far the most efficient option is to make sure that the hot water tank has an immersion heater (most of them do).

You can use that to get a tank of hot water if the boiler breaks down - but best not to use long term as the electricity is quite expensive.

Many people don't even know they have one - or worse leave them switched on all the time !

Electric showers are very good in the warmer months but pretty bad when it is cold because of the temperature of the water that has to be heated by the shower so at the moment we have a lovely fast shower but in a few months it will be a sad trickle for it to be hot.

Totally agree with this. Best of both worlds.

@GasPanic yes, an immersion heater would provide an alternative means of heating water (though I suppose the tank would still be a single point of failure). Our house doesn't have a hot water tank, as the current setup uses a combi boiler. We might look to change that one day, but that's the way it is at the moment so having one electric shower for occasional use made sense to us.

I'd seriously look at solar to heat your hot water. We have ONLY used solar since March/April to heat the hot water. Even on a dull day in summer it's plenty, once we are generating more than 0.2kw over what the house is using it diverts to heat the hot water.

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our gas shower is awful in winter... never gets anywhere near hot enough. nothing as depressing as a barely tepid shower on a freezing cold day.

Its also then boiling in summer and hard to balance between cooking you alive and just being cold water which is too cold.

There must be something wrong with the installation! The hot water pressure should be the same as the cold in a pressurised hot water cylinder.